Carl Dean was Dolly Parton’s soulmate.
The singer, 79, announced Monday that her husband of nearly 60 years died in Nashville at age 82. While the couple was private, Parton occasionally gave rare insight into their marriage in interviews.
“It is important to have someone there in your corner and you know they’ll love you for just who you are,” Parton told E! News in May 2024.
“There’s a great comfort in knowing that someone loves you exactly for who you are—because he fell in love with me before I became a star,” she added.
The “9 to 5” singer met her husband at a Wishy Washy Laundromat at 18. They got married two years later but never had children together — a decision Parton has opened up about over time.
“Since I had no kids, and my husband was pretty independent, I had freedom,” Parton said in a November 2020 episode of Oprah Winfrey’s Apple TV+ talk show, “The Oprah Conversation.”
“So I think a big part of my whole success is the fact that I was free to work,” she explained.
The 11-time Grammy Award winner told Winfrey, “I didn’t have children because I believed that God didn’t mean for me to have kids so everybody’s kids could be mine, so I could do things like Imagination Library because if I hadn’t had the freedom to work, I wouldn’t have done all the things I’ve done. I wouldn’t be in a position to do all of the things I’m doing now.”
In 2014, Parton told The Guardian that she and Dean once considered having a child and even picked a name out if it was a girl.
“My husband and I, when we first got married, we thought about if we had kids, ‘What would they look like? Would they be tall because he’s tall? Or would they be little squats like me?’ If we’d had a girl, she was gonna be called Carla,” Parton shared.
“Anyway, we talked about it, and we dreamed it, but it wasn’t meant to be. Now that we’re older? We’re glad,” she added.
The “Jolene” singer also told the outlet that she thinks she “would’ve been a great mother.”
“I would probably have given up everything else. Because I would’ve felt guilty about that, if I’d have left them [to work, to tour],” said Parton. “Everything would have changed. I probably wouldn’t have been a star.”
Dean rarely ever spoke about his relationship with Parton, though he made an exception when he gave an interview to Entertainment Tonight in 2016.
“My first thought was ‘I’m gonna marry that girl.’ My second thought was, ‘Lord she’s good lookin.’ And that was the day my life began,” he said of meeting Parton. “I wouldn’t trade the last 50 years for nothing on this earth.”
Dean’s death was revealed on Parton’s Instagram on Monday.
“Carl Dean, husband of Dolly Parton, passed away March 3rd in Nashville at the age of 82. He will be laid to rest in a private ceremony with immediate family attending. He is survived by his siblings Sandra and Donnie,” the post stated.
In her own words, Parton said, “Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy. The family asks for privacy during this difficult time.”
Dean’s cause of death has not been disclosed.
